Authorities stress importance of reporting missing people
Authorities stress importance of reporting missing people
By Michael C. Butz
MButz@News-Herald.com
One year. Two months. Four months. One year and four months. Eleven months. One year and six months. Two years.
Those lengths of time represent how long some of the 11 victims — 10 of which have been identified — went without being reported to authorities as missing in the alleged serial killings case involving Anthony Sowell.
In a number of those cases, the victims weren't reported as missing until the Sowell case started making headlines.
While investigators continue to search for evidence and possibly more victims in buildings near Sowell's Imperial Avenue home in Cleveland, some have questioned how so many missing people could go unreported.
Advocates for a missing-persons bureau in Cleveland argue that some disappearances may go unreported out of a community perception that police wouldn't take the disappearance seriously.
They suggest a bureau devoted to missing-persons cases may change that perception.
Yet other observers in the Sowell case are pointing to the victims' histories — especially those that involved drug abuse — to explain why they went unreported for so long.
Either way, the bottom line is that few missing-person reports were filed in those cases.
"If we don't know a person is missing, we wouldn't know to look," Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland said. "We have a variety of techniques and tools we can use to try to help locate a missing person, but if we don't know they're missing, we can't activate the system."
Painesville Police Lt. Denise Mercsak agreed.
"I think we do a pretty good job here in (Lake) County of getting the information out to officers," she said, referring to the details needed to find missing people. "But you have to have a report to do that."
Mercsak acknowledged that because of a person's lifestyle, their friends or family might not report them as missing right away, though that lifestyle doesn't necessarily have to involve drug use.
"Sometimes they leave for days or weeks at a time," she said.
"Habitual runaways, they may show up a couple days later, and (families) aren't as concerned as (they would be) for someone whose first time it is running away."
Families of first-time runaways "always call," Mercsak said.
"There's just a lot of circumstances families that are not used to someone turning up missing will be concerned about."
In this area, it's fairly rare that missing people go unreported, McClelland said.
"Our community is different, certainly, from areas in Cuyahoga County and Cleveland," he said.
"Most of the time out here it gets reported."
In fact, McClelland said the calls his department receives are those in which concerned friends and family call right away — almost the polar opposite of what happened in the Sowell case.
"We've had calls where (someone reported), 'A co-worker didn't show up for work today and that's not like him,' " he said. "We had a call the other day where someone reported his wife hadn't come home. (It turned out that) her car had caught fire and they were still on scene taking care of things.
"We get those types of calls here," McClelland said. "We'll even get calls from family out of state, where they've been trying to call grandpa and he hasn't answered his phone. We'll do a welfare check."
Wickliffe Police Lt. Pat Hengst agreed that it's rare to see these types of cases go unreported.
"I think that's relatively unusual in our experience here, but we have had a few instances in which somebody lives on their own and they're gone for a period of time before it's reported," he said.
Earlier this year, Wickliffe police had such a case. Lisa Allen went missing about March 15, but since the 43-year-old — who had a history of mental illness — lived by herself, it wasn't until March 18 that she was reported missing.
Neighbors who'd noticed Allen's front door open for several days contacted authorities, Hengst said.
In the weeks following, police combed the woods near Wickliffe High School and the railroad tracks by East 305th Street in search of Allen. It wasn't until May 25 — two months after she was reported missing — that her body was found between the north end of Plum Street and Lakefront Park in Fairport Harbor.
"When people are living alone, the sooner we know, the smaller the window is for when they many have gone missing," Hengst said.
"Obviously, the sooner we get involved, the easier it is for us to go back and reconstruct that person's movements, and that's beneficial for use in an investigation."
McClelland agreed.
"You can be quite a ways outside Geauga County in 30 minutes. If you give it 30 days, oh my gosh," he said. "As the trail gets colder, it gets harder to find people."
The procedure for filing a missing person report is relatively similar across the board, but can vary by department.
"In Wickliffe, we will not turn somebody away," Hengst said. "We would not tell someone to come back in a couple of days. We would take the report, regardless of how long the person has been missing."
After paperwork is completed, the patrol officer who took the report then would make calls to friends and relatives based on the information provided.
"Particularly with children and teenagers, this can result in the person being located very quickly," said Hengst, explaining that information gathered in the initial report includes whether the person has any psychological issues, like depression, and whether he or she is able to take care of himself.
"If it's a juvenile, we assume they're not able to care for themselves," he said.
Said Mercsak: "We like to have a picture, especially with a juvenile. Also, any list of friends, where they like to go, what they were last seen wearing and sometimes what their interests are. The more we know, the easier it is to locate the person.
"What's also important is that if somebody reports a juvenile as missing and they come up with additional information, they shouldn't hesitate to let us know," she said.
When investigating on scene, police will check for clues left behind by the missing person.
"In some cases we use information obtained from computers, such as MySpace and those types of accounts," McClelland said.
"They may be talking about going someplace if they're talking about running away."
Regardless of the circumstances, if someone believes another to be missing, he or she should "absolutely contact authorities," Mercsak said.
"Even if it's a habitual runaway, you don't want to hold onto that information," she said.
Said Hengst: "People certainly know their family members better than we do. So if they're concerned about their family members' behaviors, I'd encourage them to contact us and express their concerns and we'll begin an investigation from there."
Remains identified in Cleveland
Authorities have identified 10 of 11 victims whose remains were found at the Cleveland home of Anthony Sowell, who has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder.
Six of the victims identified were never reported missing or reported only after bodies were discovered at Sowell's house. Two of the remaining four victims were reported missing but not in Cleveland.
* Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights, was the first victim identified. Carmichael was last seen nearly a year ago after telling a friend she was going out for some fun. Her family says she was a crack cocaine addict and claim police didn't pursue her disappearance because of her drug history.
* Telacia Fortson, 31, of East Cleveland, disappeared in June. She had three children, but lost custody because of drug use. She still spent time with them and when she didn't show up to braid their hair, family members became alarmed. She was reported missing Oct. 31 after news of the bodies at Sowell's house first emerged.
* Tishana Culver, 31, of Cleveland, lived a few houses away from Sowell on Imperial Avenue. The mother of four was last seen by her family in June 2008 and was never reported missing. She had several drug convictions and worked as a beautician.
* Nancy Cobbs, 43, of Cleveland, disappeared in April around the time of her birthday. She was reported missing to Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority police on June 11 and to Cleveland police Nov. 2. She had four children and was living with a daughter about three blocks from Sowell's house. She was a familiar face in the area and had a history of drug abuse.
* Amelda Hunter, 47, of Cleveland, was a mother of two sons and a daughter. Family members say she vanished last April, and they reported her missing on Nov. 3. Hunter's brother says he had dropped her off in Sowell's neighborhood several times and knows that she drank beer with him in his house.
* Crystal Dozier, 38, of Cleveland, was last seen two years ago in October 2007 and was not reported missing. She lived a few miles away from Sowell's house on the city's east side, but a few years earlier had lived on the same street as the suspect.
* Michelle Mason, 45, of Cleveland, lived near Sowell's neighborhood and rarely went longer than two days without talking to her family. They went to police Oct. 12, 2008, after not hearing from her for a few days. Her sister says police didn't take it seriously because of her arrest record, even though she had stopped cashing her Social Security checks. Police say they conducted dozens of searches, including near her home and at hospitals.
* Janice Webb, 48, of Cleveland, often hung out in Sowell's neighborhood. She was last seen n June 3 and her family reported her missing Aug. 2. Cleveland police say they searched for her unsuccessfully by checking with friends and relatives and at area hospitals and shelters.
* Kim Yvette Smith, 44, of Cleveland, was last seen Jan. 1 and was reported missing to police on Nov. 2.
* Leshanda Long, 25, of Cleveland, had not been seen since August 2008 but was not reported as a missing person. She had been reported missing twice when she was in her teens.
By Michael C. Butz
MButz@News-Herald.com
One year. Two months. Four months. One year and four months. Eleven months. One year and six months. Two years.
Those lengths of time represent how long some of the 11 victims — 10 of which have been identified — went without being reported to authorities as missing in the alleged serial killings case involving Anthony Sowell.
In a number of those cases, the victims weren't reported as missing until the Sowell case started making headlines.
While investigators continue to search for evidence and possibly more victims in buildings near Sowell's Imperial Avenue home in Cleveland, some have questioned how so many missing people could go unreported.
Advocates for a missing-persons bureau in Cleveland argue that some disappearances may go unreported out of a community perception that police wouldn't take the disappearance seriously.
They suggest a bureau devoted to missing-persons cases may change that perception.
Yet other observers in the Sowell case are pointing to the victims' histories — especially those that involved drug abuse — to explain why they went unreported for so long.
Either way, the bottom line is that few missing-person reports were filed in those cases.
"If we don't know a person is missing, we wouldn't know to look," Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland said. "We have a variety of techniques and tools we can use to try to help locate a missing person, but if we don't know they're missing, we can't activate the system."
Painesville Police Lt. Denise Mercsak agreed.
"I think we do a pretty good job here in (Lake) County of getting the information out to officers," she said, referring to the details needed to find missing people. "But you have to have a report to do that."
Mercsak acknowledged that because of a person's lifestyle, their friends or family might not report them as missing right away, though that lifestyle doesn't necessarily have to involve drug use.
"Sometimes they leave for days or weeks at a time," she said.
"Habitual runaways, they may show up a couple days later, and (families) aren't as concerned as (they would be) for someone whose first time it is running away."
Families of first-time runaways "always call," Mercsak said.
"There's just a lot of circumstances families that are not used to someone turning up missing will be concerned about."
In this area, it's fairly rare that missing people go unreported, McClelland said.
"Our community is different, certainly, from areas in Cuyahoga County and Cleveland," he said.
"Most of the time out here it gets reported."
In fact, McClelland said the calls his department receives are those in which concerned friends and family call right away — almost the polar opposite of what happened in the Sowell case.
"We've had calls where (someone reported), 'A co-worker didn't show up for work today and that's not like him,' " he said. "We had a call the other day where someone reported his wife hadn't come home. (It turned out that) her car had caught fire and they were still on scene taking care of things.
"We get those types of calls here," McClelland said. "We'll even get calls from family out of state, where they've been trying to call grandpa and he hasn't answered his phone. We'll do a welfare check."
Wickliffe Police Lt. Pat Hengst agreed that it's rare to see these types of cases go unreported.
"I think that's relatively unusual in our experience here, but we have had a few instances in which somebody lives on their own and they're gone for a period of time before it's reported," he said.
Earlier this year, Wickliffe police had such a case. Lisa Allen went missing about March 15, but since the 43-year-old — who had a history of mental illness — lived by herself, it wasn't until March 18 that she was reported missing.
Neighbors who'd noticed Allen's front door open for several days contacted authorities, Hengst said.
In the weeks following, police combed the woods near Wickliffe High School and the railroad tracks by East 305th Street in search of Allen. It wasn't until May 25 — two months after she was reported missing — that her body was found between the north end of Plum Street and Lakefront Park in Fairport Harbor.
"When people are living alone, the sooner we know, the smaller the window is for when they many have gone missing," Hengst said.
"Obviously, the sooner we get involved, the easier it is for us to go back and reconstruct that person's movements, and that's beneficial for use in an investigation."
McClelland agreed.
"You can be quite a ways outside Geauga County in 30 minutes. If you give it 30 days, oh my gosh," he said. "As the trail gets colder, it gets harder to find people."
The procedure for filing a missing person report is relatively similar across the board, but can vary by department.
"In Wickliffe, we will not turn somebody away," Hengst said. "We would not tell someone to come back in a couple of days. We would take the report, regardless of how long the person has been missing."
After paperwork is completed, the patrol officer who took the report then would make calls to friends and relatives based on the information provided.
"Particularly with children and teenagers, this can result in the person being located very quickly," said Hengst, explaining that information gathered in the initial report includes whether the person has any psychological issues, like depression, and whether he or she is able to take care of himself.
"If it's a juvenile, we assume they're not able to care for themselves," he said.
Said Mercsak: "We like to have a picture, especially with a juvenile. Also, any list of friends, where they like to go, what they were last seen wearing and sometimes what their interests are. The more we know, the easier it is to locate the person.
"What's also important is that if somebody reports a juvenile as missing and they come up with additional information, they shouldn't hesitate to let us know," she said.
When investigating on scene, police will check for clues left behind by the missing person.
"In some cases we use information obtained from computers, such as MySpace and those types of accounts," McClelland said.
"They may be talking about going someplace if they're talking about running away."
Regardless of the circumstances, if someone believes another to be missing, he or she should "absolutely contact authorities," Mercsak said.
"Even if it's a habitual runaway, you don't want to hold onto that information," she said.
Said Hengst: "People certainly know their family members better than we do. So if they're concerned about their family members' behaviors, I'd encourage them to contact us and express their concerns and we'll begin an investigation from there."
Remains identified in Cleveland
Authorities have identified 10 of 11 victims whose remains were found at the Cleveland home of Anthony Sowell, who has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder.
Six of the victims identified were never reported missing or reported only after bodies were discovered at Sowell's house. Two of the remaining four victims were reported missing but not in Cleveland.
* Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights, was the first victim identified. Carmichael was last seen nearly a year ago after telling a friend she was going out for some fun. Her family says she was a crack cocaine addict and claim police didn't pursue her disappearance because of her drug history.
* Telacia Fortson, 31, of East Cleveland, disappeared in June. She had three children, but lost custody because of drug use. She still spent time with them and when she didn't show up to braid their hair, family members became alarmed. She was reported missing Oct. 31 after news of the bodies at Sowell's house first emerged.
* Tishana Culver, 31, of Cleveland, lived a few houses away from Sowell on Imperial Avenue. The mother of four was last seen by her family in June 2008 and was never reported missing. She had several drug convictions and worked as a beautician.
* Nancy Cobbs, 43, of Cleveland, disappeared in April around the time of her birthday. She was reported missing to Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority police on June 11 and to Cleveland police Nov. 2. She had four children and was living with a daughter about three blocks from Sowell's house. She was a familiar face in the area and had a history of drug abuse.
* Amelda Hunter, 47, of Cleveland, was a mother of two sons and a daughter. Family members say she vanished last April, and they reported her missing on Nov. 3. Hunter's brother says he had dropped her off in Sowell's neighborhood several times and knows that she drank beer with him in his house.
* Crystal Dozier, 38, of Cleveland, was last seen two years ago in October 2007 and was not reported missing. She lived a few miles away from Sowell's house on the city's east side, but a few years earlier had lived on the same street as the suspect.
* Michelle Mason, 45, of Cleveland, lived near Sowell's neighborhood and rarely went longer than two days without talking to her family. They went to police Oct. 12, 2008, after not hearing from her for a few days. Her sister says police didn't take it seriously because of her arrest record, even though she had stopped cashing her Social Security checks. Police say they conducted dozens of searches, including near her home and at hospitals.
* Janice Webb, 48, of Cleveland, often hung out in Sowell's neighborhood. She was last seen n June 3 and her family reported her missing Aug. 2. Cleveland police say they searched for her unsuccessfully by checking with friends and relatives and at area hospitals and shelters.
* Kim Yvette Smith, 44, of Cleveland, was last seen Jan. 1 and was reported missing to police on Nov. 2.
* Leshanda Long, 25, of Cleveland, had not been seen since August 2008 but was not reported as a missing person. She had been reported missing twice when she was in her teens.
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Hi Ava,
I will have this checked today and let you know. Hugs, Cyn
Ditto Patty!! I will post this information about Bethany in a 'Cold Case' Topic....thank-you, we don't want to forget not even one " special person". No matter what age, or how long they have been missing, there is always HOPE!! Ava
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Marian, there is a new show called Find My Family (ABC, Mondays 9/8c) who reunites adopted children with their families. You should write them. Here is the link for the application:
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